BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca intensified on Wednesday with the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker denying the EU’s allegation that it withdrew from the vaccine talks.
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it still intends to meet with EU officials in Brussels later that day. The comments come after EU officials said the company had informed the bloc that it would not attend a meeting to discuss vaccine delays – the third such talks in as many days.
“The representative of AstraZeneca announced this morning and let us know this morning that their participation will not be confirmed,” said EU Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant.
The rift between AstraZeneca and the EU has raised concerns about the nationalism of vaccines, as countries are desperate to end the pandemic and return to normal for limited supply of the precious vaccine shots.
The latest disagreement between the two parties comes after AstraZeneca denied the EU accusation that the company was not fulfilling its obligations to deliver coronavirus vaccines. AstraZeneca said the figures in its contract with the EU were targets that could not be met due to problems with the rapid expansion of production capacity.
CEO Pascal Soriot made the remarks in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica following days of criticism from EU leaders furious over the news that initial shipments from AstraZeneca would be lower than expected.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said last week that it intends to reduce initial deliveries in the EU to 31 million doses of 80 million due to the reduced yield in the manufacturing process.
“Our contract is not a contractual commitment,” Soriot said. “It’s a best effort. Actually, we said we were going to try our best, but we can not guarantee that we will succeed. When we get there, we are a little delayed. ‘
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it understands and shares “the frustration that the initial amount of our vaccine delivered to the European Union will be lower than predicted.”
On Monday, the EU threatened to impose strict export controls on COVID-19 vaccines made in the block within days.
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and has the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trading bloc, is far behind countries such as Israel and Britain to carry out coronavirus vaccine shots for its health workers and the most vulnerable people. This is despite the fact that more than 400,000 confirmed virus deaths have since the pandemic began.
The shortfall in the planned delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes at the same time as a slowdown in the distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech shots, as the company upgrades production facilities in a factory in Belgium.
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Kirka reported from London.
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